


Pandemonium

by roguefaerie (samidha)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 750 Word Challenge, As Spoiler Free as Possible for my reader :), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-06 03:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12202965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/pseuds/roguefaerie
Summary: What pandemonium looks like for Sam and Dean.





	Pandemonium

**Author's Note:**

  * For [badly_knitted](https://archiveofourown.org/users/badly_knitted/gifts).



> Prompt: Pandemonium

Pandemonium. Sam and Dean are used to “cleaning up” Pandemonium. Whether it’s cleaning up John Winchester’s puke after some extended Miller Time, or cleaning up blood and guts or the remnants of a salt and burn, Sam and Dean know how to do all of those things.

They are a regular clean up crew. And they are people wranglers too. They can calm down a situation with upset civvies (okay, that’s mostly Sam, though he leaves some of the women to Dean), and they can make you feel comfortable in the midst of a bloodbath. That’s their charm.

It’s a weird charm, with flannel and too-worn boots and it makes some people wonder if they should be worried about the guns. But it’s rock salt, you know? That calms the normal people down too.

In a forest at night, sixty feet from a monster’s den, or in a haunted asylum, Sam and Dean find civilians who have to be taught the ropes of the world they _really_ live in. 

Sam knows that now--there’s no real escaping telling people sometimes. Whether you do or don’t, they’re still in danger, especially if the threat was big enough to bring a Winchester to it.

They’ve seen it all, it seems like, until they realize just how endlessly creative the world is, and how many things there still are that can be thrown at them.

It’s a painful and lonely business, where reaching out just means more explaining and more importantly more people in danger.

Pandemonium every day, a new flavor every week. Blood and guts and gore, morgues and keeping their cool around police. 

 

And pain that grows and grows in their hearts, making them reach inward and for each other always. They have a body count, together and apart. Jess’ death is Sam’s, but Cassie’s dad is probably down to Dean, in a way. Somehow. Somehow it has to be Dean’s to deal with.

And there’s more, forever and ever there’s more, because it turns out mighty hard to kill a Winchester, but for them to see death is easy. For them to lose people, it can happen at the drop of a hat, at the mention of a name.

Loss knits itself together with their healing cuts and bruises, bones that regrow slightly crooked and in a way that will mean pain for the rest of their lives.

They walk back into motel rooms propping each other up, or sleep in the Impala when they can’t face still more ugly wallpaper. When they need the closeness of the back seat and Metallica thrumming through the upholstery on low.

They break bones together and they break hearts together and they face danger together and they heal tumult and Pandemoium (and cause some too). In and out of a town in a matter of days, two brothers who are as alike as they are different, forging a path in a world that’s tried to get them dead but can never quite actually manage it.

And together they keep things as much of their world together as they can, keep it steady, keep it moving, keep it as clear as they can--who they are, what they need to do, what they need to feel and stay safe.

In the middle of pandemonium there are some constants, and two of them are Sam and Dean.

For them to go on, there are some others, like music and the road. But in the end everything comes down to two brothers who are ready and willing to put in the work, do the time, brave the fear.

They can do it because they have always done it, were trained to do it, were known for it all over the hunting world. Where Sam and Dean go, monsters bite the big one. It’s really as simple as that.

People come to expect it, sometimes, and that’s why Sam and Dean rarely blow in to the same town twice, because once they’ve handled something they expect those they teach to carry on in their stead, a group of civilians who know enough to keep their loved ones safe just like Sam and Dean do.

It can be sad and lonely work, especially when they think of older hunters or how many hunters aren’t older at all. There’s some, maybe enough, but there could be more. There could always be more. Especially in a world like this, full of pandemonium. Sometimes even they don’t know what to do.


End file.
